I'm playing Assassin's Creed: Origins this month, for the first time playing any of that franchise, and one of the most recent games I've played (it's from 2017) and I'm amazed by:

a) how much effort they obviously put into it, historic details from Egypt 2k years ago, game engine, quests, little details

b) how much it feels like a thin wrapper around Cookie Clicker

Steam tells me 1/3rd of players don't even get out of the Prologue area.